COBCH1178 Nonnumeric literal has length of zero.

When compiling for .NET COBOL code, use of a zero-length literal is flagged as a Micro Focus language extension. When compiling for native code, the use of such a literal results in warning message 1010, and the literal is converted to a single character space.

Resolution:

When compiling for .NET COBOL code, you must change the length of the nonnumeric literal to a value greater than zero. Do the same when compiling for native code unless you intend that the zero-length literal be converted to a single space character.

Example:

In the following example, the move statement contains a zero-length literal. When compiling for native code, a single-space character is moved to the X1 data item. If this is not the desired behavior, you must change the code.

       identification division.
       program-id. err1178.
       data division.
       working-storage section.
       01 x1 pic x(10).
       procedure division.
       p1.
           move "" to x1
           if x1 = space
               display "Pass"
           end-if
           .